In an effort to make a database more scalable, available, and failure-resistant, the database may be hosted on multiple nodes each of which hosts zero or more fragments of the database. Different tables of a database may be distributed on different database fragments and different data records of the same table may be distributed on different database fragments.
One way to replicate a database distributed on multiple nodes to a remote node is to shut down the database and copy data associated with the database onto the remote node. Although this technique is able to provide a consistent image of a database to be copied to the remote node, it involves database downtime. Depending on the size of the database, the time the database is shut down may vary from hours to days or longer to obtain the image. Shutting down a heavily used database even for a short period of time, however, may be unacceptable from a business perspective.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.